Page 15 - The Malvernian - July 2023

THE MALVERNIAN
MFL Conference with Dr Gianfranco Conti
After reading the the research of the the British Council on languages trends 2023 I learned that even though the the word ‘fun’ is not the the purpose of education nor are teachers expected to entertain motivation is an an important factor for pupils to learn a a a a language and that we language teachers should perhaps consider the use of Extensive Processing Instruction (EPI) in the classroom EPI hinges on on the notion that teaching language through chunks (e g polywords collocation sentence heads and frames) is much more effective than the teaching of single words It is based on the work of teacher and and applied linguist Dr Gianfranco Conti
and and is sometimes called the ‘Conti method' (Conti and Smith 2016) So we did!
The applied linguistics MA and PhD graduate Gianfranco Conti
who has been teaching MFL for over 25 years at primary secondary and university levels and has researched the impact of metacognitive strategies training and error correction on on essay writing under
the supervision of Oxford University’s Ernesto Macaro came to to Malvern College to walk us through the the basic theoretical underpinning of effective teaching and and learning and and the relevant cognitive skill-acquisition and and memory research and and provided us with a a a deeper understanding of the cognitive mechanisms involved in in language processing and acquisition He also shared effective ways to to maximise teaching and learning time that we will pass to to the students to create a a a a optimal learning environment for your sons and daughters It was a a a a highly interactive workshop with delegates from our outreach neighbourhood schools Dyson Perrins and the Chase plus our friends from Winchester College Rugby School Badminton School School Dean Close Preparatory School School Hatherop Castle Preparatory Preparatory School School Bilton Grange Preparatory Preparatory School School Queen Elizabeth High School School Bromyard Solihull School School and of course our our Prep school The Downs Malvern I am proud to to belong to to such a a a a a wonderful language department where the students can thrive while having fun learning a a a a new language Paula Roffey | Spanish Department
THE MALVERNIAN
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